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Already there were floating across his brain ideas of perpetuating his name in the person of some child of Hetta's, but with the distinct understanding that he and the child's father should never see each other. No more than twenty-four hours had intervened between the receipt of Paul's letter and that from Lady Carbury, but during those four-and-twenty hours he had almost forgotten Mrs Hurtle.
'Oh, indeed; Miss Carbury! the sister of Sir Felix Carbury? There was something in the tone of the man's voice which grated painfully on Hetta's ears, but she answered the question. 'Oh; Sir Felix's sister!
Of course Hetta must live wherever her mother lived till she should marry; but Hetta's life was so much at her own disposal that her mother did not feel herself bound to be guided in the great matter by Hetta's predispositions. But she must tell Hetta should she ultimately make up her mind to marry the man, and in that case the sooner this was done the better.
Perhaps he felt, with some undefined but still existing hope, that the writing of such a letter would deprive him of his last chance. Hetta's letter to himself hardly required an immediate answer, did not, indeed, demand any answer.
He had referred Hetta to the man himself. He thought that he knew, and he did indeed accurately know, the state of Hetta's mind. She was wretched because she thought that while her lover was winning her love, while she herself was willingly allowing him to win her love, he was dallying with another woman, and making to that other woman promises the same as those he made to her. This was not true.
It was made on Tuesday night and she was bound by her promise to send a reply some time on Thursday. But early on the Wednesday morning she had made up her mind; and at noon on that day her letter was written. She had spoken to Hetta about the man, and she had seen that Hetta had disliked him. She was not disposed to be much guided by Hetta's opinion.
If it were to be so, Hetta's child must take the name of Carbury, and must be to him as his heir, as near as possible his own child. In her favour he must throw aside that law of primogeniture which to him was so sacred that he had been hitherto minded to make Sir Felix his heir in spite of the absolute unfitness of the wretched young man.
Ten days had passed since the meeting narrated in the last chapter, ten days, during which Hetta's letter had been sent to her lover, but in which she had received no reply, when two gentlemen met each other in a certain room in Liverpool, who were seen together in the same room in the early part of this chronicle.
'My name is Hetta. 'Hetta; that's short for something. But it's very pretty. I have no brother, no sister. And I'll tell you, though you must not tell anybody again; I have no real mother. Madame Melmotte is not my mamma, though papa chooses that it should be thought so. All this she whispered, with rapid words, almost into Hetta's ear. 'And papa is so cruel to me!
'I don't know what I am to say, ejaculated Hetta amidst her sobs. Whether the girl was good or bad, to be sought or to be avoided, there was so much tragedy in her position that Hetta's heart was melted with sympathy. 'I wonder whether you love anybody, and whether he loves you, said Marie. Hetta certainly had not come there to talk of her own affairs, and made no reply to this.
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